The Cure

The Cure

I have a cold. Not a real serious one, but still enough to make me feel miserable and ill. So I have been doctoring it with one of many over-the-counter choices that promise to make me feel better. And, for a while, it does. It's interesting, but I can always tell the moment the medicine is wearing off. Usually it happens right in the middle of the night, when I most need that healing sleep, and I am awakened by the drippy, sneezy, stuffy miserableness of my cold.

No cure to date has been found for the common cold, and millions of people suffer through its nasty symptoms. Cold medicines help, but they do not cure. All they do is alleviate the symptoms for a period of time, enabling us to continue our daily routine with a minimum of discomfort. In effect, they "cover" the symptoms, but do not eliminate the root of the problem, the virus that causes the cold.

The Law is the same way. It is effective at alleviating for a short time the symptoms of sin, namely the guilt. Go and make the appropriate sacrifices, and the guilt is lifted, for a short time. The blood of bulls and goats merely "covers" the sin, but that blood does not eliminate the root of the problem, sin and death. One has to go back again and again, continuing the process of sacrifices and rituals in order to alleviate the guilt of sin, and progress is never made. Death has not been overcome, and sin still rears its ugly head in opposition to the perfection of the Law. Although the Law is perfect, because of sin in the people, it cannot make perfect those who draw near to worship, and must be continually satisfied through sacrifices and offerings.

Since there is no cure for the common cold, I have to endure the length of the cold and try to alleviate its symptoms. But there is a cure for the sin-sick soul, caught in the throes of spiritual death. That cure is Jesus Christ whose finished work on the cross draws all men to Himself. We can gain life eternal and enter that Sabbath rest, confident of our standing in Christ and joyfully knowing that our sin symptoms have not just been covered, but that the root has been taken away in Christ. For we who are alive in Christ have died to sin.

Now when we fail we can thank God that He has forgiven us through Christ. The weak flesh that our new creation must live in is a daily reminder that we are dependent upon Christ for our very life. And that is a blessing because it causes us to cling to Him, and not to dead works, and the mere covering of the Law. (Lynne Harris)